The Arcane Archer - Chapter 42 Boss Battle

Pushing open the door, Ava took the initiative by running in first with her daggers out and ready to stab any incoming enemy. We were able to get a couple of feet without seeing anything before torches started lighting up showing that we were in what appeared to be an arena.

In the center of the room sat a lone figure. Its skin was red, and it was as tall as a regular human but still had some features that indicated it to be goblin like. This was a hobgoblin, the evolution of a regular goblin.

The hobgoblin had a set of chain mail armor on, along with a shield and long sword in its hands. It was sitting on the ground, but it stood up once all the torches along side the wall lit up.

Ava ran forwards towards the hobgoblin and once she was close enough, slid beneath the hobgoblin just as it was about to attack her. Just barely avoiding the attack, Ava quickly turned around and stabbed the hobgoblin in the back but because of the chainmail, it didn’t go all the way through and deal only minor damage.

The entire time this was happening, I was pulling out all the goblin arrows from my quiver and using a quick mana mark on all of them. I shot them all at varying locations around the hobgoblin for later use.

After firing all of them, I switched to using mana arrows instead. Pulling the bowstring back, I focused on forming the mana into a shape of an arrow and quickly felt my skill doing the rest of the work. Both of my hands started glowing in a purple aura as the said purple aura started leaving them and moving to create the shape of an arrow.

Though it may seem like this took a few seconds, it seemed to happen instantly, and my mind was able to keep track of it for some reason.

Firing the arrow, it swiftly flew through the air as it flew straight into the hobgoblin’s back as he was now facing Ava who was away from me. The first arrow that hit it, made it move forwards a bit which Ava took the opportunity to once again stab it.

Now that it knew I was an actual competitor; it grew wary of my as it placed kicked Ava to create some distance between them. I shot another arrowing during this time, but he must’ve been expecting it as he took a page out of my book and swiftly rolled to the side to evade it.

Placing it’s shield on its back to protect against any strikes it couldn’t see, it put both hands on the hilt of the longsword and got into position to either attack or defend. Ava and I slowly circled around it as it watched us wearily until I was right in front of it.

Once there, Ava charged at the goblin’s back hoping to get an attack in but was unable to as the Hobgoblin ran forwards to attack me.

I cursed slightly before firing and arrow and using curving arrow on one of the goblins arrows that I marked earlier to fly towards it. One thing I realized with curving arrow was that I could even move the arrows from a sitting position like a puppeteer if I gave them enough mana. This allowed for me to help control the field better and give a surprise attack, but it needed a bit of prepping to do.

The hobgoblin saw my glowing mana arrow firing straight for it so it used its sword to cut right through it, which I should add, I didn’t know was possible. But by doing this, it didn’t see the one goblin arrow flying straight for it.

The arrow flew straight into the hobgoblin shoulder and pierced through its chainmail, causing it to shout in pain. I smirked at that and decided to summon the rest of the arrows.

Using {Curving Arrow} on each and every arrow that I could, I made them all attack the hobgoblin and watched as he used his sword to break a few which let only 3 arrows left in total but by the time he was able to get rid of that much, he had already taken a lot of damage.

The 3 arrows lay in the ground nearby its feet and I quickly moved them out of the way so that he wouldn’t be able to destroy them. If I were to keep up the constant use of what I called the Curving Field, it would probably mean it would destroy those arrows immediately. I would have to save them for another surprise attack when it wasn’t expecting it.

And while it was expecting more arrows from me, it however forgot about Ava.

As Ava jumped onto it’s back, she quickly used both daggers to stab him in the sides of the throat. The hobgoblin once again roared in pain but was still somehow alive.

Using one hand, it quickly grabbed hold of Ava and threw her towards me.
for visiting.

I moved slightly to the side as I knew that I wouldn’t be able to catch her without falling myself. As she hit the ground, she rolled back up onto her feet just in time to see the hobgoblin pull something out of its pocket. What it pulled out of its pocked was a small glass bottle that held what appeared to be a chunky liquid that was lime colored.

Ava’s eyes widened as she quickly ran towards the hobgoblin and yelled to me, “Don’t let him drink that potion!”

I quickly looked over to my mana and noticed that I didn’t have much left. I might just be able to cast 5 or 6 mana arrows, but I don’t think it would do much. Instead, I opted to go for a spell instead.

While most people think that it’s always important to figure out how to make yourself stronger with magic, few people learn how to make others stronger unless they were a priest or druid who were dedicated to healing and helping. I on the other hand, just like the efficiency and speed of what someone could do so I casted {Haste} on Ava.

{Haste} is a fun spell in my opinion. Casting this spell on a willing creature within range (Which was 30ft), I’m able to double that creatures speed, increase their defense, make them more dexterous, and allow them to attack quicker and more often.

The downside however to all these buffs, is that if I ever somehow drop the spell or just loose concentration, then whatever I targeted would have to spend a few seconds of doing nothing as a wave of lethargy rapidly sweeps over them making it impossible to do anything.

The regular duration of this spell is a minute and it took up the rest of my mana meaning that I would have to either wait however long for my mana to regenerate somewhat or run over and pick up one of the mana marked arrows.

I chose to do both as I made my way over to an arrow and watched as Ava slashed at the hobgoblin’s wrists, causing it to drop whatever potion it was about to drink to the ground. It growled in anger but quickly grabbed its shield again to help it defend against Ava’s flurry of dagger blows over and over.

Eventually I was able to get to one of my arrows but by that point, some of my mana had finally regenerated and Ava had nearly killed the hobgoblin (I think). Seeing as I had only enough mana to cast one of the most basic spells which was a cantrip, I decided to use it to cause a distraction.

Running to the side once again, I continued to watch as Ava met it blow for blow and occasionally got in a quick cut or two onto its face. Once I was completely on its right side, I threw a quick firebolt at it, using up all my mana.

Once that was done, I ran as quickly as I could to the back of the hobgoblin which was now no longer protected because the it was currently using its shield. Pulling out that goblin arrow from my quiver and aiming it as quickly as I could, I watched as the firebolt hit the hobgoblin in the face and gave Ava enough time to stab it in the side of the head.

That blow might’ve been enough to kill it, but I didn’t want to risk it with my weird luck and everything to I quickly fired my arrow and let it fly directly into its heart. The arrow pierced through the chain mail and was somehow able to strike true as blood gushed out. The hobgoblin fell to the floor as my {Haste} spell on Ava ended in she stood in place for a few seconds, just staring at the body of the hobgoblin.

I walked over to the potion that it dropped previously and raised it up to eye level. Currently I was unable to cast inspect on it as my mana was completely empty, but I had a feeling that it would be incredibly useful for something later down the line.

Storing it in one of the small pouches on my belt, I walked over to Ava who was now able to move again.

“Good job with that spell you casted on me earlier. Didn’t even know you had a spell scroll for that.” She said as she quickly fell to the floor to take a rest.

“A spell scroll?” I asked in question. “I didn’t use a spell scroll, just casted the spell.”

She bolted up into a sitting position.

“YOU WHAT!?” She yelled in both surprise in question. “HOW DID YOU CAST A SPELL WITHOUT USING MATERIAL, SAMATIC, OR VERBAL COMPONETNTS?!”

“I just did I guess?” I asked in confusion. “Can’t everyone.”

She just started at be before falling back down to the ground.

“No. No they cannot. What you’re doing is supposed to be impossible, but I guess that’s a normal day to you from what I hear from the Elves.”

I smirked.

“And then you must also know that I won’t reveal any of my secrets, do you?”

She smiled slightly upon hearing this.

“I did.” She responded before eventually laughing a bit which I eventually joined into.